Impoverished Neighbourhoods & After-School Programs

This paper examines the quality of Ontario’s after-school program as implemented by Rapport by using Tuason et al.’s (2009) criteria. The goal of this study is to answer the following questions: How the three core areas of the program are implemented and what activities are offered in the three core areas? How staff members and participant perceive the program and how the program impacts the lives of the participants? After-school programs have become an essential part of impoverished communities over the past three decades. The need of quality after-school programs in disadvantaged neighbourhoods has never been higher. Children residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are vulnerable to countless harms such as: crime, victimization, drugs, dysfunctional family systems, abuse and etc. Children are most vulnerable during the after-school hours and require adequate supervision. Through qualitative research methods, data was gathered through focus group interviews with participants attending Ontario’s after school program at Dunrankin public school in Malton Ontario. Additionally, data was also gathered through one on one interviews with staff members and program coordinator of the program. This study revealed Rapport offered the participants a quality after-school program

Impoverished Neighbourhoods & After-School Programs

This paper examines the quality of Ontario’s after-school program as implemented by Rapport by using Tuason et al.’s (2009) criteria. The goal of this study is to answer the following questions: How the three core areas of the program are implemented and what activities are offered in the three core areas? How staff members and participant perceive the program and how the program impacts the lives of the participants? After-school programs have become an essential part of impoverished communities over the past three decades. The need of quality after-school programs in disadvantaged neighbourhoods has never been higher. Children residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are vulnerable to countless harms such as: crime, victimization, drugs, dysfunctional family systems, abuse and etc. Children are most vulnerable during the after-school hours and require adequate supervision. Through qualitative research methods, data was gathered through focus group interviews with participants attending Ontario’s after school program at Dunrankin public school in Malton Ontario. Additionally, data was also gathered through one on one interviews with staff members and program coordinator of the program. This study revealed Rapport offered the participants a quality after-school program

An Analytical Study of the Economic Condition of Jews in Fatimid Egypt

This study examines the economic conditions of Jews in Fatimid Egypt from the 10th to 12th centuries CE. Through an analysis of primary sources, the study provides a nuanced understanding of the economic and social factors that affected the Jewish community during this period. The study argues that while Jews in Fatimid Egypt enjoyed certain economic privileges such as their involvement in international trade networks and their exemption from some taxes, they also faced some social and political restrictions, including forced conversion and discriminatory laws in the era of some Fatimid rulers. Despite these challenges, the Jewish community in Fatimid Egypt demonstrated resilience and adaptability, developing a range of economic strategies to maintain their livelihoods and build social networks. These strategies included investment in trade and finance, engagement with the wider Muslim society, and the development of communal institutions. The study highlights the complexity of Jewish economic life in medieval Egypt, challenging simplistic assumptions about the economic conditions of minority groups in pre-modern societies

Artificial materials for microwave applications

This thesis has focussed on the properties and manufacturing techniques of artificial RF materials. These artificial materials can be divided into two types depending on the whether their individual unit cell is resonant or non-resonant. Both these types have been discussed. It has been shown that the efficiency and bandwidth of a patch antenna using a flexible 3D printed substrate can be improved by using composite materials as heterogeneous substrates. Composite materials with a large range of relative permittivity values were manufactured by combing 3D printing with commercial laminates. An equation to design such composite materials has been presented. The engineering tolerance and repeatability of 3D printing as a manufacturing process to fabricate ‘on demand’ dielectrics has been presented. [Continues.

Asymmetric Shocks and Co-movement of Price Indices

This paper is an attempt to gauge the relationship between the long run paths of consumer price index and wholesale price index of Pakistan. For the empirical analysis the Johansen co-integration technique has been applied on monthly data (1978 to 2010) of WPI and CPI. This paper found that both the indices are co-integrated in the long run. Thus the deviations in movements of WPI and CPI in the short run are transitory and both the indices will converge to their coherent path in the long run. Therefore, inflation computed from CPI can be used as official measure of inflation without worrying for short run movements of WPI.Price Level, Time Series Models, Monetary Policy

Data Mining in Product Cycle Prediction of Company Mergers

The dynamic nature of business marketing in various parts of the world and industries is associated with a quest to achieve or attain and retain competitive advantages. With such advantages coming in the form of increased product user bases, a majority of the firms have ended up embracing business internationalization to stretch beyond local and regional borders within which they are based. With these efforts associated with improved company performances, Wal-Mart has been unexceptional. The effort to retain a competitive advantage and superior brand image across the world has been evidenced by its recent merger with Massmart, a South African company that owns brands such as Builder’s Warehouse, Makro, and Game. It is also worth highlighting that Massmart is South Africa’s second largest distributor of consumer goods and remains the largest retailer dealing in basic foods, liquor and home improvement equipment, and general merchandise. This paper examines the merger between Wal-Mart and Massmart, focusing on issues such as the international market analysis of the retail industry, aspects of product category and demand size, and competition analysis. In so doing, resultant recommendations might give an insight into current trends in business marketing strategies that embrace mergers, as well as lay an opportunity for improvement in the Walmart-Massmart merger and others at the intra-industry and inter-industry level

Microwave and Ultrasound Assisted Zeolitization of Coal Fly Ash

Coal fly ash (CFA) is a major bi-product of coal fired power plants and is a liability for coal power industry. Coal fly ash has been accumulating rapidly around the globe and has been known to be accident prone, resulting in $1.65 billion in clean-up costs and fines. Given the environmental damage CFA is capable of causing, it is a great interest for scientists to recycle this material. Utilization of novel energy such as microwave and ultrasound has been of research interest for the zeolitization of coal fly ash. This research produced zeolites from CFA utilizing microwave and ultrasound power. Single mode microwave which significantly decreases was utilized to produce zeolite with 300 W power in 30 min. The amount of irradiation was also related to zeolite the growth of crystals and phase purity. Ultrasound assisted zeolitization resulted in single phase zeolite-A crystals with high crystallinity and smaller crystal sizes at 85°C compared to 95°C with conventional synthesis. Ultrasound probe was shown to produce the results with only 1/10th of energy as previously reported works. The Recycling of waste stream for zeolitization process was also investigated this can contribute to lower the financial costs of zeolite production. A novel design of a microwave reactor is introduced in this work that utilizes the microwave energy efficiently this design can result in cost savings in the production of zeolites through microwave energy. It is a first step in industrializing the zeolitization of CFA utilizing microwave energy which can result in a cleaner coal energy in world where it is a significant source of power generation and can offer the option of using CFA waste accumulated decreasing the likelihood of future accidents causing environmental damages and legal liabilities. This work has shown that microwave and ultrasound irradiation can significantly decrease the time of zeolitization process. Single mode microwave has been shown to be much more effective in producing the same results at a third of the power rating for a multimode microwave. Similarly, utilization of ultrasound probe produced a single phase zeolite at a tenth of power reported using ultrasound bath. Ultrasound assisted zeolitization was observed at 85°C, about 10°C lower than conventional synthesis. Waste stream recycling was shown to be effective for a couple of runs indicating that waste from zeolitization can be reduced. A pilot scale microwave reactor with a novel design was commissioned can be utilized in future from microwave synthesis

Exploring Muslims consumer perception and religiosity towards purchase behavior in context with western imported food products in Pakistan

Consumers in an Islamic society are governed by Islamic norms which serve as a guide in their daily life. Moderation directs the way Muslims spend money: they are required to base their consumption on strict adherence to this practice. Despite guidelines on moderate spending and food consumption according to Islamic law and the values they entail, which contrast to the consumerism of western culture, the consumption of western imported food and the money spent on it in Pakistan has been increasing. This is surprising because western imported food is more expensive compared to locally produced food products and to purchase it seems contrary to the Muslim principle of moderation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the motivation behind this behavior. This study aims to improve the understanding of the factors that influence Muslim consumers’ purchase behavior in the context of western imported food in Pakistan. The factors related to the marketing mix, which include product attributes, price, place and promotion and the consumer related factors of personality, social class, brand trust, self-concept, customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, religiosity, lifestyle and subjective norms were used to investigate this purchase behavior in detail. To test these factors, the research model used in this study was based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). This is a sequential study. A mixed method approach was adopted in the form of in-depth semi-structured interviews and a paper-based survey questionnaire. Initially, a detailed literature review was carried out to identify the factors influencing the food purchase behavior from a global perspective, which identified the factors mentioned above. From this analysis, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 90 participants comprised of professionals, housewives and university students from eight cities in Pakistan which represented different regions and demographic variables. These were Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad, Faisalabad and Larkana. The technique used to analyse the qualitative interview findings was thematic content analysis. To confirm the results, Leximancer software Version 4.5 was used to reanalyze and validate them. This authenticated the overall qualitative interview findings. A pilot test of the survey instrument was conducted with 375 respondents in the city Karachi. On this basis, the instrument was adapted and some items were excluded. At this point, the hypotheses were developed and the conceptual model was adjusted before delivering the main survey questionnaire which involved 927 respondents from these eight Pakistani cities with the occupational demographics mentioned above. The objective of the main study was to confirm the findings that were revealed by qualitative focused in-depth interviews. Once all the questionnaires were received, a detailed screening was carried out to find any missing values and to confirm the normality of the data. Measurement models were developed for individual constructs to verify the model fit and also to construct the final structural model. To determine the reliability and validity of the constructs, convergent and construct validity methods were used. To confirm the findings of the qualitative interviews, a structural equation modeling technique was used and hypotheses were accepted and rejected by using the path analysis method. The findings from the qualitative focused interviews revealed that the product attributes of packaging, taste, and labeling influenced their purchase behavior. The vast majority reported that food products coming from the west needs to be halal and this is an important deciding factor for purchase. Further, brand trust, loyalty, and satisfaction were influential factors for Muslim consumers purchasing and consuming western imported food in Pakistan. Also, these consumers were willing to pay a higher price for western imported food due to its overall quality, brand name and country of origin. However, the elements of promotion, lifestyle, self-concept and subjective norms were not found to significantly influence their purchase behavior. The quantitative study revealed that product attributes, price, self-concept, brand trust, personality, and religiosity were positively associated with Muslim consumer purchase intention towards western imported food products. This study is instrumental for western food producers and exporters, providing valuable information about the motives behind the purchase of western imported food products in Pakistan, and by extension, potentially in Muslim countries in general. The study also contributes to the academic literature on Muslim consumer behavior in the context of western imported food purchasing behavior by combining factors on a single platform, grounded in the theory of planned behavior. The study’s findings add value to the field of consumer behavior, in which little research has been conducted on the relationship between consumer perception, religiosity and Muslims’ consumer behavior towards western imported food products